Unfortunately, most people that are grossly overweight or obese don’t own a full-size mirror and thus are completely unaware of how badly their condition has become. Usually they become comfortable with their ever-growing weight condition and stop dressing stylish and fit themselves in stretch pants and double xx or xxx tops.
Self-Compassion Goes a Long Way Towards Eliminating Obesity
Awareness is the first step for an overweight person to take to decide to take action and reduce weight and become healthier. I recommend people that are extremely overweight to buy a full-size mirror and strip naked in front of it three times daily, morning, noon and night, especially at home when they decide to gorge on junk food.
Getting an overweight or obese person to understand the health dangers of their condition needs to be done with compassion while making them aware of the issue and teach them self-compassion as a way to eliminate extreme self-guilt and depression. Letting them know that the process of reducing weight properly is a slow process, but it only has to be done once as opposed to a fast losing program that has to be done over and over in a person’s lifetime is important. The way to lose weight and keep it of is for a person to educate themselves on the nutrients that the body needs and the real reason for eating.
According to researcher Kristin Neff, self-compassion involves three main elements: self-kindness, mindfulness, and awareness of common humanity.
Research has shown that self-compassion can greatly reduce feelings of depression. This is an important step for those that are overweight or obese. The power of the mind can tilt the behavior in either direction if coaching an overweight person is done incorrectly.
Another study found that maladaptive beliefs can lead to depression. When self-compassion helped alleviate these negative thoughts, the relationship between the depression and critical thoughts lessened. This same study concluded that “… the self-kindness component of self-compassion” helped moderate “the irrational belief-depression relationship.”
© Copyright – Hector Sectzer
